Well, it has been quite the year in general and quite the year as it relates to DevOps. As I sit here on the cusp of the 10th year of publishing DevOps.com, I look back and recognize how much DevOps has grown, evolved, matured and shifted over time. As was the case 10 years ago, there are those who say DevOps does not work or insist that DevOps is dead. My response:
“They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can’t kill the beast.”
~ Eagles, Hotel California
No, it seems you can’t kill DevOps. Much like Obi-Wan Kenobi being struck down by Darth Vader, DevOps, it seems, is more powerful than ever. It has seeped into the very fabric of IT.
While cloud native has become the dominant form of computing, the fact is you really would not have cloud-native stacks without DevOps fundamentals enabling them. As cloud-native continues to grow, so does DevOps.
One of the interesting things about DevOps is the fact that it really has become an enterprise toolset. While initially scaling DevOps across an organization was challenging (and still is for many), it has become much more common to see large enterprises—or ‘horses,’ as Gene Kim would call them—adopting DevOps methodologies across significant parts of their IT teams.
Speaking of Gene Kim, some have pointed to his recent announcement that he’s changing the name of his DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) to Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit as evidence of DevOps’ demise. We will be interviewing Gene on Techstrong.TV the first week in January 2024 and will address this with him, so stay tuned. But without giving out too many spoilers, Gene felt that DOES had expanded beyond just DevOps to encompass a general technology discussion (hey, AI will be in there for sure) aimed at technology leaders (C-suite). But rest assured that Gene Kim does not think DevOps is dead.
Looking ahead to 2024, I see DevOps making broad inroads into the SMB and mid-enterprise market. The DevOps toolset and methodology have matured to the point where it can be adopted and used successfully in IT environments not as resource-rich or process-driven as large enterprises generally are.
Another continuing story in DevOps is DevSecOps. Security and/or quality continues to be a key driver for DevOps pipelines, with the software supply chain and SBOM security still driving lots of adoption and adaptation.
Did I mention AI? You can’t discuss much today without mentioning it, or so it seems. AI is a catalyst for automation. Generally, in software development and deployment, where there is automation, you guessed it—there is DevOps.
But here is one out of left field for you: ITSM. It seems like IT service management is making a big comeback (some say it never left). Today’s ITSM incorporates many DevOps fundamentals to increase scale and agility. On this front, stay tuned; in partnership with PeopleCert, the folks behind ITIL, Prince 2 and the DevOps Institute, we will roll out a series of virtual events in 2024, tying all three of these key technologies together.
So, there’s lots going on in the DevOps world for 2024. You can count on us here at Techstrong Group to keep you in the know.
On that note, this will close out our coverage for 2023. To all of our readers, watchers, listeners, friends, sponsors and contributors, a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and here is to a healthy and prosperous 2024.
